What not to do when you start a new Virtual Support business.
by Rosie Shilo
Article from Run Your Business Life
As a network manager, I’ve seen many start-up Virtual Support (or Virtual Assistant – called VAs) businesses come through Virtually Yours. I’ve seen new VAs who are unsure of what they should or could be doing, and others that leap in and give everything a go with a smile.
One thing I have seen on occasion though, are VAs who start up their new venture, and begin by emulating the VAs they admire. Personally, I think this is a good idea, however, there are a few golden rules to consider when starting up in the VA Industry.
Respect copyright is the first. You may admire another VA for their products and promotions, but be inspired by it and create your own.
Your business name needs to be unique and reflect who you are and what you want your business to become. Your products are unique to you and your skillset. Stand out by being you. As they say, ‘everyone else is already taken’ and ‘you are best at being you than anyone else’.
Join networks and get involved. Work isn’t going to just come to you, you need to build up your networks both in the VA Industry and in the Industries you would like to target as clients. People hire people they trust.
Don’t just sell your product. Sell yourself too. You can sell yourself by being active in your Industry, dedicating yourself to enhancing your skills and supporting those around you.
Don’t just see other VAs as ‘the competition’. The VAs with the most successful businesses are those who have worked alongside other VAs, lending a hand when needed, collaborating to build better ideas and products. There is plenty of work to go around if you are good at what you do.
Love what you do. Don’t just provide a service because you can. This might get you by when you are employed – you still get your paycheque at the end of the month even if you didn’t push yourself to be the best you can be. But when you run your own business – loving it is the key to success. If you love it, you will care about what your clients think of your work and you will be energised by it. If you only do it because you can, it can be easy to be uninspired and not really care so much about the end product and how it helps your client. Plus, it’s not as much fun!
And finally, ask questions! Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Ask friends, peers, mentors. Listen to their advice and use what you think best suits you and your situation. You don’t have to do it on your own.
E-books
I have been wondering a bit lately about e-books and what useful resources might be out there.
Recently a VA on a VA forum asked the questions about e-book cover software – something that would make creating a good looking e-book cover for promoting the e-book.
I’ve always created my own in Illustrator but was keen to hear what easier options there were.
These came recommended by other VAs.
Quick 3D Cover Maker – http://www.nervepreserve.com/ – is very quick, simple and productive graphical tool for developers, authors and designers who need good quality 3D cover illustrations. The program makes 3D pictures of boxshots, CD, DVD, Blue-ray boxes, eBooks covers more. The program allows to create professional level web illustrations literally with a few mouse clicks.
E-book Generator – http://www.armandmorin.com/ebook/ – Our New eBook Software gives you all the features you could ever want in an ebook software now or in the future. Here’s the real deal…
My e-cover maker – http://www.myecovermaker.com/ – MyEcoverMaker is an extremely easy to use point-and-click online software to create ebook covers without the need for expensive software like photoshop and plugins to create stunning 3D eCovers
I’d love to hear your thoughts on these and other useful tools for people looking at creating e-books.
Are you a Virtual Assistant?
Do you provide assistance to your clients, in some shape or form, from your own offices? Do you communicate with your clients, send your service, promote your business, all online? Or at least mainly online?
In the past, a Virtual Assistant was someone who uniquely, provided administrative services from their own office. It was a hard concept for businesses to get their heads around – how do we utilise someone’s services if they don’t come in and see us?
Nowadays there are a significant number of services and industries that rely heavily on, and indeed require, the internet to run their business and it’s much easier for clients to understand how that can work.
Businesses network online, they promote their business online, and using online services they share files, access off-site computers, and provide information.
Do you need to go to someone’s office to have some artwork redesigned? Does your bookkeeper need to visit you onsite every time you need bookwork done? Do you need to sit beside your transcriptionist as they type up your thoughts and notes?
Not anymore.
So through my work, managing a Virtual Assistance Network, I’ve come to realise that limiting this title to administration is simply not accurate anymore.
The Virtually Yours Virtual Assistants provide exceptional Social Media support, Bookkeeping, IT support, SEO and Website design and management, Author Support, Speaker Support, Event Management, Copywriting, Editing, Marketing, Human Relations, Legal Secretarial, Video Editing… and the list goes on.
So think about it – are YOU a Virtual Assistant?
Dropbox and NotifyBox
Do you use, like so many other people, dropbox?
Dropbox is a fantastic program which can be utilised either for free using the basic service or for a small subscription fee. Using dropbox you can so easily share files with your co-workers, colleagues, clients etc. Anything that you have in the folder that you share with them, is in their folder. You update it, it updates on their PC as long as it’s connected to the internet. It’s fantastic!
For organisations working on event documents, for example, or project files, where sharing and avoiding duplication is a real time saver, dropbox can really be a godsend.
But what about conflicting files?
What if you have a file open and are editing it, and someone starts editing the same file from their own PC? You end up with conflicting files and it can be really frustrating determining what changes were made in each.
That’s where notify box comes in.
While dropbox claims to notify you if someone is using a file or has it open, I don’t find that it works.
So I set up notifybox and now when a file is being used by someone I am sharing that folder with, I get told! It’s wonderful! No more conflicting files.
What does it all really cost?
Do the Sums
With a Virtual Assistant you pay only for the hours worked and you receive 100% productivity 100% of the time.
| 40 Hour Week @ $20.00 per hour (46 working weeks) | $36,800.00 |
| 4 weeks Annual Leave | $3,200.00 |
| 10 Days Sick Leave | $1,600.00 |
| Temp During Annual Leave @ $35.00 per hour | $5,600.00 |
| Workers Compensation | $550.00 |
| Office Space for PA (100 square feet @ $25.00/sf) | $2,500.00 |
| Annual Bonus (2 weeks salary) | $1,600.00 |
| Superannuation (9% of earnings) | $3,300.00 |
| Other Intangible Costs (furniture, training, family leave etc.) | $1,200.00 (minimum) |
| Total Yearly Salary for Permanent Staff Member | $56,350.00 |
| Total Effective Hourly Rate | $27.00 per hour |
| 50% Productivity Level (average) for Permanent Staff | $54.00 per hour |
| 100% Productivity for a Virtual PA | $40.00 per hour |
Please note that some of these figures may be outdated but the savings remain the same.
Working with other VAs
Subcontracting jobs are just as important as direct-client jobs so if someone posts for a subcontracting job on the network, please ensure that you are suitably qualified and experienced before you respond.
If it’s an area you are wanting to learn in, you can contact the VA who posted the lead to talk to them about how you can assist, but realise they may not be able to take you on depending on their own client requirements.
Subcontacting is such a great way for other VA’s to get to know how you work and therefore, refer other work to you in the future, so make sure you
- communicate clearly,
- meet deadlines,
- respond to the VA at the same level of communication (ie. formal) they show or higher*
- pay your subbie according to their invoice terms! – If you are unable to pay until the client pays you, just say so up front but understand that if the client doesn’t pay you, you still have to pay your subbie.
- acknowledge that you have received the work when it’s sent back to you – a simple email to say it’s arrived is just common courtesy and can avoid some time wasting disasters.
If there are areas you want practice in, feel free to ask the team if you can help them in any way in that area.
*By this I mean that sometimes you will work with someone who is very easy going and chatty and other times they like to keep it purely professional. It’s the same as with any client – they usually set the tone and it’s good if you respond at their level or higher.
Some Winter Tips from C Squared Virtual Admin Services – a reference checked member of VYVA
As the Virtually Yours Virtual Assistants who are members of this forum enjoy the last month of winter here in Melbourne (a time to keep warm and eat lots of soup and winter fare), we are making sure we all keep our clients nice and warm. How are you looking after your clients? What do you do to turn your warm leads into cosy sales? Do you have time to keep those potential clients warm or are you bogged down in the office under an electric blanket of admin tasks?
Are you so busy reading and responding to emails and splashing around in a puddle of paperwork that you can’t get any work done? Here’s a tip for you that’s outside the square - Don’t check your emails! Phew – was that a blustery north wind blowing through, or a howl of “I can’t leave emails unchecked!!! OMG what are you thinking!” that I heard?
Ok, so I’m not saying NEVER check your emails, just don’t check them every five minutes. Only look at your inbox a few times a day and action the emails then and there! And once they’re actioned, file them away because if that email has been actioned, then you shouldn’t need to look at it again. If an email can’t be actioned immediately, create a task for it and move it out of your inbox and into a To Do folder or task list. Your Inbox should just be for incoming emails - don’t use it as a storage folder or a To Do list.
By not ‘living in the inbox’, you’ll get time to get to your clients so that they’re not left out in the cold and the rain. Looking after them and keeping them ‘warm and cosy’ means that they will come back to you again and again because they will see you as the best there is.
Chris from C Squared Virtual Admin Services and the other VYVA Virtual Assistants here on our forum are great at doing admin – so why not outsource to one of us? We love doing things for our clients like creating newsletters, database management, document formatting, managing emails and calendars, booking travel and accommodation and more… all the fiddly things that get in the way of you building your business! There’s nothing better than a client who says “LOVE IT, thank you – very innovative….” which is what one of C Squared Virtual Admin’s clients said recently.
Anyway, I hope you keep warm and dry for this last month of winter, but don’t worry – spring is on its way, along with Father’s Day in Australia – why not choose a VYVA Virtual Assistant as a gift for Dad in September? He’ll love you for it.
Record keeping for small business
http://www.ato.gov.au/businesses/content.aspx?menuid=0&doc=/content/76494.htm&page=13&H13
Storing paper records electronically
Whether you use a manual or an electronic system, you can store and keep paper records electronically.
We accept the imaging of business paper records onto an electronic storage medium, provided the electronic copies are:
- a true and clear reproduction of the original paper records
- kept for five years
- capable of being retrieved and read by us at all times.
You don’t have to keep original paper records once they have been imaged onto an electronic storage medium.
| For more information, refer to: |
| Basic record keeping principles and practices apply, regardless of whether you keep manual or electronic business records.You can apply the principlesoutlined in this guide to either a paper cash book, or an electronic spreadsheet or package. |
Sections within Electronic record keeping requirements
Win.dat files – how to prevent them
By Heinz Tschabitscher, About.com Guide
When, How and Why Winmail.dat-Application/MS-Tnef is Created
It’s Outlook‘s fault, in a way. Or the recipient’s email client’s. If Outlook sends a message using the RTF format (which is not very common outside Outlook) for bold text and other text enhancements, it includes the formatting commands in the winmail.dat file. Receiving email clients that do not understand the code therein display it as a stale attachment. To make matters worse, Outlook may also pack other, regular file attachments in the winmail.dat file.
Fortunately, you can get rid of winmail.dat altogether by making sure Outlook does not even try to send mail using RTF.
Prevent Winmail.dat Attachments from Being Sent in Outlook
To prevent Outlook from attaching winmail.dat when you send an email:
- Select Tools | Options… from the menu.
- Go to the Mail Format tab.
- Under Compose in this message format:, make sure either HTML or Plain Text is selected.
- Click Internet Format.
- Make sure either Convert to Plain Text format or Convert to HTML format is selected underWhen sending Outlook Rich Text messages to Internet recipients, use this format:
- Click OK.
- Click OK again.
Disabe Winmail.dat Stubbornly Going to Particular Recipients No Matter the Default
The standard settings for outgoing mail formats in Outlook can be overridden per email address. So, on a per case basis — when somebody complains about an inexplicable “Winmail.dat” attachment after you have made all the right settings changes —, you may have to reset the format for individual addresses:
- Search for the desired contact in your Outlook Contacts.
- Double-click the contact’s email address. (Alternatively, click on the desired email address with the right mouse button and select Outlook Properties… from the menu.)
- Make sure either Let Outlook decide the best sending format or Send Plain Text only is selected under Internet format:.
- Click OK.
Extract Files from Winmail.dat without Outlook
If you receive winmail.dat attachments with embedded files, you can extract them using awinmail.dat decoder on Windows or Mac OS X.
10 ways to avoid the home-office blues
July 4, 2011
A good friend wants to quit her business and get a corporate job. She is sick of uncertain income, no holiday pay and working by herself each day. Like many home-based business owners she is suffering from isolation, a more dangerous problem than many realise.
Isolation can leave them feeling flat, unmotivated and hopeless. If it persists, isolation can trigger anxiety or depression. I suspect it is a key reason why many home-based business owners, like my friend, get a company job again, even though if often involves a pay cut and little recognition for general skills developed running a small business.
Being able to work by yourself for several years is a tremendous skill. How would you cope working 50 hours a week by yourself in a small room at home, for days, months and years on end? Talking to clients each day by phone or email is no substitute for personal contact.
I meet many business owners who rave about the joys of working from home: more time, freedom and money seems like a dream, at least at the start. Then their business slows, and being on your own with less work is excruciating. Or they simply crave professional interaction.
What’s your view?
- Have you suffered from isolation in your home-based business?
- How did you get out of your rut?
- What advice could you give other business owners to reduce isolation risks?
Here are 10 suggestions for those thinking about, or currently working from home, full-time. Some cost money, so may not suit cash-strapped business owners. Other ideas cost nothing and could make a big difference for those feeling isolated.
1. Plan for it
Have a strategy to deal with isolation risks. Develop a weekly routine that forces you to mix with others – and stick to it. If you can, allocate a day each week to meet contacts, prospect for new clients, and get out of your home office.
2. Get a mentor
Mentors are especially important for home-based business owners who are serious about their venture. Find someone you trust who can provide business, career and personal advice, and connect you with others.
3. Consider a business coach
I have seen struggling, unhappy small business owners transform their venture – and themselves – with the advice of a good coach. Yes, it can be costly, but so too is making decisions about closing a business when you are feeling blue.
4. Do a part-time university subject
If you can afford it, allocate a night a week (over two semesters or 24 weeks each year) for a relevant undergraduate or postgraduate business course. It is amazing how learning new ideas and skills, and meeting new people, can boost self-confidence and motivation.
5. Form a small group of like-minded business owners
A colleague organises a monthly meeting for half a dozen entrepreneurs. It is little more than a coffee or beer, but meeting other business owners and hearing their opportunities and problems is refreshing. Alternatively, join a business association or club.
6. Consider co-working
It is no surprise that co-working is more popular with Generation Y freelancers who meet at night in inner-city locations and work together. Older home-based business owners can do their own version of co-working by sharing the cost of office space among, say, five or 10 people. That way you can work from home and still have a low-cost office to go to when you crave working near others.
7. Plan to meet new people
Set a goal to make a new contact every week. It is easier said than done for a home-based business owner who feels isolated or is time pressured, but networking is critical regardless of venture size, and incredibly energising.
8. Don’t be a sloth
You can easily let yourself go when working from home. Regular exercise is important for physical and mental wellbeing. Every home-based business owner should allocate at least 45 minutes a day for exercise, preferably at a gym or another form of exercise where you mix with others. Get out of those daggy pants, consider your personal grooming and keep your office clean. Change your workspace at least once or twice a year.
9. Set boundaries
The big danger of home-based business is too much blurring of work and professional life. Make sure you leave the house when you have a day off. Working all week from home and spending most of the weekend at home is a sure way to feel isolated over time.
10. Seek professional help
Get medical help if feelings of isolation, sadness or lack of motivation persist. It is too serious a problem to rely only on the suggestions above. Recognise if you are starting to withdraw from social contact, or working all the time in your home office to avoid mixing with others or deal with other problems.
- The national depression initiative Beyond Blue (www.beyondblue.org.au) has information that can help entrepreneurs deal with mental health problems.
- The Business In Mind project (www.businessinmind.edu.au) from the University of Tasmania has information to help managers recognise the signs and symptoms of depression and anxiety in themselves and their employees, and provides tips for addressing mental health issues.
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